Let Me Count The Ways
by BluePhoenix07
Summary: The love between Roy and Riza is one that has no explanation, yet many at the same time... This is my take at the 100 Royai themes. There will be drabbles, one-shots and mini stories. They are based on the manga. Review please! Thanks! Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

So I'm back. I decided to try to do the Royai 100 themes thing. I'm not exactly doing them all in drabble style. Some may be related to the previous one, others may be short like this one, and others may be one-shots. I'm taking it as I go. They will also all be mangaverse. I know that as a fanfiction you are a fan of the manga/anime itself as well, so I would really appreciate it if you reviewed so I can improve!! Thank you so much! enjoy!

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Military Personnel

Riza looked around her, taking in her companions for what she hoped was not going to be the last time. Everyone had been moved from the Colonel's jurisdiction. She herself had received the fuhrer's official notice stating that she will now be under his command just a couple of hours ago.

It hurt her knowing that just a few minutes ago, she was protecting and the dreams of the man she admired and respected, and now she was being used to hinder them.

It hurt her knowing that the enemy had read their intentions, and had also somehow seen under their façade.

It hurt her knowing how the Colonel… no, calling him by his position seemed to impersonal for how she felt right now; this situation was far from impersonal… It had never been impersonal. She knew how _Roy_ felt for her, and she more than knew how she felt for him, and apparently so did those who weren't supposed to.

What hurt the most was that she knew that because of that she was being "promoted". It was simple really, making it all seem like they were switching military personnel around, but she knew better. It wasn't just her position and standing in the military. She was being used for who she was to him, to keep the _Colonel_, her Roy, at bay.

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End 1

That's all for now. Thanks for reading/reviewing!


	2. Chapter 2

So this is a oneshot about the second theme, gunshot. Enjoy!!

~*Gunshot*~

BAM BAM BAM!

Roy woke with a start, breathing heavily with a cold sweat all over his body. He had been dreaming of Ishbal again, a place where so many guns had been shot, so many innocent people had been killed. Every time he dreamt of Ishbal, he could never fall asleep again for the night. He stood up, replaying the sound that woke him up in his head, a sound that he used to be terrified of, but now there lied a certain dependence upon it...

"Ah, a gunshot" he said to himself, running a tired hand through his hair.

Just as he was about to return to his bed, he heard the noise again, this time coming from outside. It took him a moment to realize that it wasn't a gunshot, but the sound of someone knocking on his door. Wondering who would come to visit at this time, he walked up to it. Upon opening it he received a great surprise.

"May I come in?" asked an apparently flustered Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye. The sight was something he thought he'd never see. She was in a short pajama with a robe thrown over it, her hair down and in a mess, and he could see the beads of sweat running down her face, even though it was fairly cool outside.

He let her in. As she walked by he noticed her legs and arms were trembling, but it didn't seem to be from the cold. He asked her anyway, and she shook her head at the offer of his jacket hanging by the door. He then led her to his kitchen, and she sat on one of the stools by the counter. 'What could be bothering her?' he though as he looked for a glass cup in his cabinets.

"Is everything alright?" Roy asked as he handed her a glass of water.

Riza gulped the water down and sighed. "Do you know what day today is?" she asked as she closed her eyes.

Roy looked at his calendar on the fridge, but the date didn't bring anything to mind at the moment. "I'm sorry, but it doesn't ring a bell…"

"Today is the day that marks the first time I ever shot someone to kill." Roy lowered his head as she balled her hand into a fist. "Today is the day that everything changed. That one gunshot…" He watched as she was slowly losing her composure, at a loss of things to say. "How dare they? How could they choose who lives and who dies?! It isn't fair! They think they are so high and mighty! Who are they to order an annihilation campaign?"

Her hands were growing tenser by the second, until she accidentally broke the glass in her hand. "Damn it," she said as she cut herself trying to pick up the pieces that fell to the floor. All of a sudden she felt a strong hand grab her upper arm and steer her to the kitchen sink. "I'm sorry … I should have be-"

"There's no need to apologize, Riza" he interrupted her. As he said her name he looked into her eyes, and then busied himself with making sure there were no remains of glass in her hands. After he made sure there weren't any left, he washed her hand with soap. "It's partially my fault that you got into this mess, I'll wash the blood from your hands." he said when she was going to protest. She shut her mouth, knowing he meant so much more than just the cup she broke, her eyes beginning to water.

He left to look for bandages and alcohol, but all the while watched her out of the corner of his eye. All this time he had been voicing his problems, his opinions, but he never considered asking her how she has coping. He never knew how that first gunshot had affected her so. Now, so many years later, he saw how it did. He knew she could no longer hold it in.

Grabbing the bandages and the alcohol he went back to Riza's side and slowly bandaged her hand. When he finished she was about to remove her hand when he grabbed it.

"Riza," he said once again, the sound of her first name being said by him sending chills down both their spines, "you need to speak, let it all out…"

He looked at her as she slowly lost her façade and tears spilled from her eyes. "I could've done something… I could have stopped shooting; I could have disobeyed like Armstrong… I could have stopped you…"

He suddenly pulled her into an embrace, "We all could have done many things differently in that war," he whispered into her ear, the proximity to each other vaguely recognized at the back of both their minds. "But those things are now in the past, there is nothing we can do about what could have been done… But you cannot place the sins of others over your shoulders." He felt her grip on his arms tighten, "What I did is set completely aside to what you did; my actions are separate from yours. Any death I caused does not fall to you. I chose my actions, as well as you did, and everyone else in the military."

"It's such a horrible feeling… knowing you can't do anything about what's passed." She said as she let go of Roy's arms and separated from him, both feeling slightly colder at the absence of the other.

Roy gave an empty chuckle. "I know, but now we have to look into the future, and make sure we never make those mistakes again, just as you've said to me so many times." He said as he wiped away some tears from her cheek and took her hand on the pretext of checking the bandaging work.

"Thank you, Roy, for listening," she said softly. The sound of his name coming from her mouth almost paralyzed him. He hadn't heard it since they were children.

"No problem… you don't even have a clue of how much you've helped me." Roy said with a wry smile on his face.

"I do it for you, you know, for the future you so highly speak of" she said with a warm smile.

Roy smiled back, this time genuinely. Then he put on a serious face as he began to speak again. "You shouldn't bottle up your emotions like that; it'll come to get you one day." said Roy as they both walked away from the kitchen. He looked at Riza and noticed how she still looked slightly distraught.

"Well, this coming from?" she said while wiping away some remaining tears.

Roy chuckled. She was about to leave the house when Roy grabbed her for what seemed the tenth time that night. "And where do you think you're going?" he said with a stern glance at her.

"To my home…" said Riza matter-of-factly.

"Wrong!" said Roy, "you are staying here for the night." He let go of her arm.

"I can't do that, it's wrong, it's… unethi-"

"Riza, we're just two friends right now, and you need company," Roy said, interrupting her; "you cannot spend a night like this alone, so you're going to stay here. Who cares about ethics right now? What matters here is you," he said, his tone going softer at the last sentence.

Her eyes softened as he stepped closer to her. "Roy," she said softly, "really, I'm fine now…"

"That was probably the most unconvincing thing you have said to me ever," he said sternly. "You are going to stay here tonight, and if I have to make it an order I will!"

Riza looked taken aback. He had spoken to her in a harsh tone, a tone she almost never heard directed at her. Before she knew what was happening though, she felt a pair of lips on her cheek, and just as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone again.

"I'm going to protect you from any other gunshots for the rest of the night, Riza, whether you like it or not." he said, his forehead touching hers. "I can't stand by and not do anything…"

With that she smiled as she said "I guess I have no choice then…"

And she walked to his room, and slept the soundest night of her life.

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I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading and remember to review!!


	3. Chapter 3

So yeah, maybe the characters are a little OOC in this one, but I still think it's cute, and I needed a fluffy one after the first two.

Disclaimer: I just realized I had not done one... I do not own FMA or any of its characters or its plotline. I wish I could come up with something as good as that!

enjoy! and don't forget to review!!

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Battlefield

Roy was sitting at his desk deep in thought, surrounded by Havoc and Breda. How had he let this conversation get so far? He should have ordered them to shut up as soon as it started. But it was too late now, and he had a decision to make.

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Riza returned from her lunch break with the frown still on her face, looking preoccupied. When their eyes met, she gave him a strange look. Was it… frustration? He looked around. He was doing his paperwork, he had been on time this morning, he hadn't started talking nonsense to put things off… there was nothing wrong today. In fact, he was so in line it scared him.

So… why the look? When he asked her, all she did was shake her head, and leave mumbling something along the lines of 'going to the shooting range.' He stared after her as she left, worried about what could get her so frustrated. He was snapped out from his state when Havoc spoke.

"What's up with the Lieutenant?" he asked.

"I don't know…" answered Roy with a hand under his chin as he tore his eyes from the door, "I asked her and she wouldn't answer."

Breda chuckled as both men looked at him curiously.

"Did you hit your head or something?" asked Havoc, cigarette hanging loosely from his mouth.

"Colonel Mustang…" began Breda, "permission to speak freely?"

Roy nodded, wondering what he was about to talk about that he needed his permission. Breda approached Roy's chair, Havoc closely behind so he could hear what he was going to say.

"Well," Breda began, "Falman told me about what happened yesterday with the Lieutenant."

"What about it? We caught Barry…" said Roy looking confused.

"Are you really that dense?" said Breda, "what was Barry doing when you arrived?"

"… He was hugging her?" said Roy, confused expression growing as Havoc burst out laughing.

"He is so lucky he doesn't have a body! He would have been dead!" said Havoc between fits.

"But what does that have to do with Ri- the Lieutenant's mood?" asked Roy, covering up the fact that he almost called her by her name in his workplace.

Both Breda and Havoc raised eyebrows, Breda with a sly smile on his face. Mustang grew more worried by the minute.

Breda mulled over different ways to continue with his explanation, and decided that straightforward was the best choice, "You love the Lieutenant, don't you?"

Roy almost fell out of his chair, and Havoc coughed as he almost choked on his cigarette from the shock at Breda's bluntness. "What did you say?" Roy said in an almost threatening tone.

"You heard me," said Breda with his arms crossed. "Havoc and I bet all the time when you two will hurry and hook up."

Havoc waved at Roy with a grin on his face as Roy glared at him. "Alright, say I do have feelings for the Lieutenant… just hypothetically… what does that have to do with any of this?"

"You two are as obvious as a cow in a beauty pageant, (1)… well, to us that know you anyway," said Havoc, crossing his arms.

Roy raised an eyebrow and glared at Havoc once again as Breda continued. "Hawkeye is a woman, and women's intuition is a mysterious thing. For all we know, she knows you love her, and she's waiting for you to do something. I'm guessing she's frustrated that you aren't doing anything yet and it all burst when Barry was acting like that with her." Breda said as Havoc nodded in agreement.

So that's how he got there, surrounded by two Lieutenants who were staring him down talking to him about women, while he stared at the door wondering what had gone wrong with the world. Roy crossed his arms looking frustrated at his two subordinates. "What do you suggest I do then? Go talk to her?"

"Are you aware that you just confessed your feelings?" said Breda grinning.

"And don't try to deny it know," said Havoc as Roy seemed like he was about to protest, "We'll know you're just lying, besides" he said as he flicked the ashes off his cigarette into the ashtray he had moved to Roy's desk, "the fact that everyone in the office agrees to this just proves that it isn't our imagination."

Roy swore, but shrugged and added "take it as you will."

Havoc chuckled as Breda spoke, "Speak to her, you don't have to go all out today, but just let her know... subtly."

"I can't believe Roy Mustang is taking woman advice from both of us," said Havoc.

"Havoc, do you have any idea how dangerously close I am to torching you?" said Roy menacingly as his fingers created a small spark. "And get that damn ashtray off my desk!"

Havoc shrugged and said, "So, what are you going to do chief?" Roy gave him a dangerous look and Havoc quickly added, "about Hawkeye I mean."

Roy exhaled deeply and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms and looking at the ceiling wondering if he could just float through it and disappear.

After ten minutes, Roy decided he had had enough thinking time. "I'm going for a walk." And with that he left the office.

"So, what's up with the women's intuition stuff Breda… that was kind of scary." Havoc said as he wrote down in his notebook the amount Fuery owed Breda and him from the bet.

"That was a load of crap; Hawkeye is in as much denial as the Colonel is. I'd be surprised if she actually knew herself why she was in such a foul mood." He said grinning.

Havoc grinned as well. "Well, let's just check on our two lovebirds," he said standing up and sliding out the door.

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Roy stood in front of the entrance to the shooting range as he heard a large amount of shots being fired. He checked how many people had written down their names in the notebook outside saying they used the facilities. His eyes widened when he saw that it was only her.

"Damn…" said Roy as he ran a hand through his hair, thinking about what would happen if he said the wrong thing. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you going in?" asked Havoc.

"It sounds like a war in there!" said Roy as he gulped.

"Well, they say love is a battlefield." Havoc said as he pushed Roy inside.

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Finito!

Remeber to review!! :D


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